Vol.59/No.17           May 1, 1995 
 
 
International Campaign To Win New Readers: Sales Drive Picking Up Steam  

BY LAURA GARZA
The international campaign to win new readers of the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and the New International magazine is entering the third week slightly behind schedule. Supporters have so far sold 16 percent of the goal; we should be at 20 percent. However, reports during the first two weeks of the effort show the potential to catch up and get on schedule.

From the April 9 women's rights rally in Washington, D.C., to an appearance by Fidel Castro in Copenhagen, Denmark, more youth are being drawn to events where they hope to be a part of offering up some resistance to the worsening conditions of capitalism. The socialist press is getting some attention from these fighters.

There have also been more opportunities to introduce the Militant to workers taking strike action, from transit workers in Philadelphia and grocery workers in California, to France, where a wave of strikes is shaking up the bosses. The ongoing discussions on affirmative action, the real history of the war in Vietnam and its lessons for today, the debate on events in World War II - all are providing more opportunities to win new readers of the socialist press.

This bodes well for organizing a special push to sign up new subscribers and put the campaign back on schedule. Participants in the international circulation campaign are planning for a special target week from April 29 to May 7, taking extra time to reach new readers, go to more events, and travel to some areas where political discussions and fights are occurring.

Miners in Kayenta, Arizona, bought 21 copies of the Militant during a shift change and one miner who had seen the Militant previously bought a copy of New International no. 10, with articles on "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution" and "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War." Another bought a copy of An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis. At the P&M mine in Window Rock, Arizona, another 20 miners bought copies of the Militant and one renewed his subscription.

Supporters of the Militant from Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco; and Seattle were on a four-day team that visited Arizona and New Mexico to talk to miners and others. The team also visited the University of New Mexico, where one subscription to the Militant was sold along with a variety of other literature. At Armond Hammer University, 28 students attended a meeting to hear Young Socialist leader Tami Peterson. There was great interest in the literature display set up on the campus before the meeting and a copy of New International no. 10 was sold along with other titles.

A student from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania invited supporters of the Militant to set up a literature table on the campus. A busload of students had gone to Washington, D.C., for the April 9 women's rights rally and some recognized the Militant from there. Five subscriptions to the Militant were sold, as well as two copies of New International and $50 worth of other literature. The student literary magazine hosted a get-together for Erin Forbes, a Young Socialist member in Philadelphia, to discuss his recent visit to Cuba. About a dozen people attended.

At the University of California at Santa Barbara, eight subscriptions to the Militant and three copies of New International were sold over two days. A raging debate is taking place on the campus around affirmative action. Militant supporters set up a table with signs calling for its defense, as well as demanding U.S. hands off the Cuban revolution. The signs attracted many young people and three asked to join the Young Socialists after discussions with Militant supporters from Los Angeles who set up the literature table.

Supporters in Los Angeles report that their sales of subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial are keeping pace with those of the Militant. This is without any special effort to concentrate on Perspectiva Mundial alone.

A table at Sergels torg in Stockholm, a commercial center in the city, netted two subscriptions to the Militant on a recent Saturday. One passerby was pleasantly surprised to see revolutionary books published by Pathfinder. He had seen the Militant and Pathfinder books in Britain and was glad to find them in Sweden. Militant supporters also sold at a demonstration of more than 100 in solidarity with the struggle in Chiapas, Mexico, and one participant bought a subscription.

Contributing to this article were Jason Redrup in Seattle; Barbara Greenway in Morgantown, West Virginia; Craig Honts in Los Angeles; and Dag Tirsen in Stockholm.  
 
 
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